Chin-Shan Wu

User acceptance of wireless technology in organizations: A comparison of alternative models

This paper compared two versions of technology acceptance model (TAM) in understanding the determinants of user intention to use wireless technology in the workplace. The first model is derived from original TAM that includes perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and behavioral intention, while the alternative model is a parsimonious version in which the attitude was taken out. The results indicated that TAM, either original or parsimonious, is successful in explaining user intention to use wireless technology in organizations. In addition, the parsimonious model showed a better model fit than that of the original model.

The Influence of Seller, Auctioneer, and Bidder Factors on Trust in Online Auctions

A growing body of research promotes the importance of trust in the business-to-consumer e-commerce environment. However, there has been little research on consumer trust in the new frontier of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auctions. The current study investigates the factors that influence bidders’ trust in online auctions from seller (trust arguments), bidder (disposition to trust), and auctioneer (structural assurance and perceived Web risk) perspectives in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of trust in the C2C environment. Laboratory experiments (manipulating the trust arguments in “about me” page) and online questionnaire surveys (measuring the subjects’ responses regarding structural assurance, perceived risk, disposition to trust, trust, and purchase intention) were conducted to collect necessary data. The results suggest that benevolent sellers significantly influence the trust of bidders. Analysis also finds that structural assurance is the most influential predictor of trust, which significantly influences a buyers intention to purchase. In addition, disposition to trust is a significant predictor of trusting belief, whereas perceived Web risk does not predict purchase intention.

The influence of learning style on satisfaction and learning effectiveness in the asynchronous web-based learning system

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of user’s learning style (including accommodators, divergers, convergers, and assimilators) on user’s satisfaction on the web-based learning system and their learning effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach This experimental research used the college students from a technology institute in Taiwan as the subject sources. By using the Kolb’s learning style model, the students are classified as four types of learners: convergers, divergers, assimilators, and accommodators. The authors analyzed the relationships among the different learning styles with their effectiveness of learning and satisfaction of using the web-based learning system. The mediation effect of gender is also presented. Findings This research indicates that: first, the satisfaction of the web-based learning system has significant influence on the learning performance of learners; second, different learning styles learners have no significant effect to the satisfaction on using the web-based learning system; third, learning effectiveness has significant difference among different learning style learners on the web-based learning system; the learning effectiveness of accommodators and divergers was significantly higher than the assimilators; fourth, different learning styles learners show significant difference in gender proportion. In addition to accommodators, whose proportion of women is higher than men, the other three learning styles’ proportions in men are higher than women. Research limitations/implications This study was grounded in the Kolb’s learning style theory. The authors provide implications for academic studies in e-learning research stream that aimed at understanding the role of learning style as well as gender differences in the asynchronous web-based learning system. Practical implications Results from this study provided the implications for students, educators, and e-learning system designers. The design of teaching materials as well as functions of e-learning systems should take learners’ learning style into consideration to ensure the best learning outcome. Originality/value This study examined the students’ learning style as well as gender differences in the asynchronous web-based learning system. An experiment was conducted to ensure the data were collected in a controlled environment, thus, offer the value that most of the prior study lacks.

A content analysis of online promotion strategies among different types of websites

With the rapid growth of internet users, internet has become a new channel for companies to implement sales promotion activities. Companies in different industries may adopt different sales promotion strategies. The main objective of the current study is to explore the most popular online sales promotion adopted by six different industries (music, bank, automobile, TV channel, bookstore and health food). Content analysis was conducted to examine the online sales promotion activities among those six industries. The results showed that price-offs, free gifts and contests and sweepstakes are the most frequently used promotion strategies on the internet. Contests and sweepstakes are popular among bank and TV channel websites. Price-offs is often used by music, online book and health food stores. Banks mainly adopt patronage awards to attract customers. Finally, product warranty promotions are popular among automobile and book online stores. Results from current study can provide implications regarding the choices among different online promotion strategies by different industries.